Cello Faculty:
Richard Aaron • Darrett Adkins • Anne Francis Bayless • Mike Block • Colin Carr • Elinor Frey • Zlatomir Fung • Gary Hoffman • Kate Kayaian • Christine Lamprea • Julia Lichten • Gloria Lum • Johannes Moser • Inbal Segev • Peter Wiley
Daily Seminar Series Guest Experts:
Aubrey Bergauer • William Fedkenheuer • Renée-Paule Gauthier • Ashleigh Gordon • David Hawthorne • Suzanne Hegland • Mary Javian • Roxan Jurkevich • Kate Kayaian • Bruno Price • Todd Reynolds • Lori Schiff • Michael Sherman • Elena Urioste • Uri Vardi
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ARTISTIC Director:
Kate Kayaian
Praised for her “transcendent” performances and her “rich, soulful…and comforting” tone (Bermuda’s Royal Gazette), cellist Kate Kayaian engages with audiences through her unexpected programming and her lively commentary and introductions to works. Her curatorial focus brings to life the common threads linking a seemingly disparate group of pieces. Highlights of this past season include performances in Boston’s Jordan Hall, the Stroum Center in Seattle, WA, the Memorial Classics Concert Series in Houston, TX, and the Charleston Library Society.
Kate performs and records regularly with the Grammy-nominated group Boston Modern Orchestra Project. She has premiered over 100 works by some of today’s most innovative composers and has worked with such icons of contemporary music as Oliver Knussen and Pierre Boulez. She is currently working on her latest project–commissioning and recording a set of new works for solo cello.
In addition to her recital and chamber music appearances, she has performed as a soloist with the New Trier Symphony, The New World Symphony, the Boston Youth Symphony, and the Bermuda Philharmonic Orchestra.
An active teaching artist and coach, Kate regularly offers workshops and master classes. Her teaching credits include directing the chamber music programs at the Boston University Tanglewood Institute and the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras. She currently teaches cello and chamber music at the Bermuda School of Music, and is the writer of Tales From the Lane, a lifestyle blog for classical musicians.
Born in Evanston, IL, she began her studies at the Music Institute of Chicago with the esteemed pedagogues Gilda Barston and Nell Novak. She went on to receive her B.M. from the New England Conservatory. She was awarded a fellowship with the New World Symphony where she often served as principal cellist. Her teachers have included Colin Carr, Gary Hoffman, and Ralph Kirshbaum.
2021 CELLO FACULTY:
Richard Aaron
Born in West Hartford, Conn., Richard L. Aaron is a professor of cello at the University of Michigan and at has been on the faculty at Juilliard since 2007. He previously taught at the Cleveland Institute of Music and the New England Conservatory, and has given master classes in Spain, Germany, France, Korea, Japan, China, and Australia, as well as at many of the leading music schools in North America, including Rice University, Oberlin Conservatory, Eastman School of Music, Mannes, the Hartt School, and the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto.
Since 2003, Aaron has been on the faculty of the Aspen Music Festival and has taught at summer music institutes including the Indiana University String Academy, Calgary Music Bridge, Peter the Great Music Festival (Groningen, Holland), Aria International Summer Academy (Massachusetts), Innsbruck Summer Music Academy (Missouri), Chautauqua Institution (New York), Idyllwild Summer Program (California), Heifetz International Music Institute (Virginia), Marrowstone Music Festival (Port Townsend, Washington), and Encore (Ohio), Orford.
Aaron is a frequent competition judge, having recently adjudicated the Beijing International Competition, Isan Yun Competition (Korea), Cassado (Japan), Amsterdam Cello Biennale Competition, Schadt String Competition, and Stulberg Competition. Many of Aaron’s students have won prizes at competitions around the world, including the Naumburg, Washington International, Johanson in Washington, Isan Yun in Korea, Cassado in Japan, and Klein in San Francisco.
Former students have occupied principal positions in major orchestras including those in Chicago, Saint Louis, Seattle, Portland, and the Metropolitan Opera. They can also be found playing in award-winning ensembles, including the Biava, Fry Street, American, Penderecki, Linden, Escher, and Aeolus string quartets. Aaron was a member of the Elysian Piano Trio at Baldwin Wallace College for 14 years and continues an active chamber music performance schedule.
Darrett Adkins
Darrett Adkins has commissioned and been the dedicatee of many important new works for cello, including concertos by Su Lian Tan and Philip Cashian, as well as Jeffrey Mumford’s concerto, which Adkins premiered with the Cleveland Chamber Symphony.
He performed the U.S. premieres of Birtwhistle’s Meridian and Donatoni’s Le Ruisseau sur l’escalier at Tanglewood, and the New York premieres of Rolf Wallin’s Grund at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall, Arne Nordheim’s Tenebrae (Alice Tully Hall), Messiaen’s Concerto for Four Instruments (Carnegie Hall), and Berio’s Sequenza XIVa (with the International Contemporary Ensemble), which Adkins also recorded for Naxos’ complete set of Sequenzas.
An avid chamber musician, Adkins performs and records in the United States and Europe with the Lions Gate Trio. He is a former member of the Zephyr Trio and the Flux Quartet, with which he gave the first complete performance of Morton Feldman’s Quartet II and made the subsequent recording on Mode Records.
He has recorded with the Juilliard Quartet and been a guest at the festivals of Melbourne, Oslo Chamber Music, Ojai, Aspen, Tanglewood, and Chautauqua. He has performed standard concerti with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Tokyo Philharmonic, Suwon Philharmonic, National Symphony of the UFF in Rio de Janeiro, and the symphonies of New Hampshire and North Carolina.
Colin Carr
Colin Carr appears throughout the world as a soloist, chamber musician, recording artist, and teacher. He has played with major orchestras worldwide, including the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, The Philharmonia, Royal Philharmonic, BBC Symphony, the orchestras of Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington, Philadelphia, Montréal and all the major orchestras of Australia and New Zealand. Conductors with whom he has worked include Rattle, Gergiev, Dutoit, Elder, Skrowasczewski and Marriner. He has been a regular guest at the BBC Proms and has twice toured Australia.
He is a frequent visitor to international chamber music festivals worldwide and has appeared often as a guest with the Guarneri and Emerson string quartets and with New York’s Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.
Colin is the winner of many prestigious international awards, including First Prize in the Naumburg Competition, the Gregor Piatigorsky Memorial Award, Second Prize in the Rostropovich International Cello Competition and also winner of the Young Concert Artists competition.
He first played the cello at the age of five. Three years later he went to the Yehudi Menuhin School, where he studied with Maurice Gendron and later William Pleeth. He was made a professor at the Royal Academy of Music in 1998, having been on the faculty of the New England Conservatory in Boston for 16 years. In 1998, St. John’s College, Oxford created the post of “Musician in Residence” for him, and in September 2002 he became a professor at Stony Brook University in New York.
Colin’s cello was made by Matteo Gofriller in Venice in 1730. He makes his home with his wife Caroline and 3 children, Clifford, Frankie and Anya, in an old house outside Oxford.
Zlatomir Fung
The first American in four decades and youngest musician ever to win First Prize at the International Tchaikovsky Competition Cello Division, Zlatomir Fung is poised to become one of the preeminent cellists of our time. Astounding audiences with his boundless virtuosity and exquisite sensitivity, the 21-year-old has already proven himself to be a star among the next generation of world-class musicians. Fung’s impeccable technique demonstrates a mastery of the canon and exceptional insight into the depths of contemporary repertoire.
In the 2019-2020 season, Fung performs with orchestra and in recital in all corners of North America. He returns to the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra, and debuts with Asheville and Aiken Symphony Orchestras, Plymouth Philharmonic, and Symphony Pro Musica in Hudson, Massachusetts. He performs at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall in a joint recital with fellow Tchaikovsky Competition winners in October, following a recital at Friends of Music in Sleepy Hollow, NY. Other recitals include Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York, Wengler Center for the Arts at Pepperdine University in Malibu, Syrinx Concerts in Toronto, The Embassy Series in Washington DC, Salon de Virtuosi and Bulgarian Concert Evenings in New York City, Chamber on the Mountain in Ojai, Evergreen Museum & Library in Baltimore, and Mainly Mozart in Coral Gables. At the Artist Series of Sarasota, Fung will perform the complete works for cello and piano by Beethoven.
As a chamber musician, Fung performs around the world, opening the season with IMS Prussia Cove on Tour to London’s Wigmore Hall, Cornwall, Cambridge, West Sussex, and Somerset. He closes the season at Dresdner Musikfestspiele. New York City chamber music engagements include the Aspect Foundation and Jupiter Chamber Players. During the summer of 2019, Fung performs at Musique de Chambre à Giverny, a chamber music festival in northern France.
Zlatomir Fung started his career with Young Concert Artists. A winner of the 2017 Young Concert Artists International Auditions and the 2017 Astral National Auditions, Fung has taken the top prizes at the 2018 Alice and Eleonore Schoenfeld International String Competition, 2016 George Enescu International Cello Competition, 2015 Johansen International Competition for Young String Players, 2014 Stulberg International String Competition, and 2014 Irving Klein International Competition. He was awarded the 2016 Landgrave von Hesse Prize at the Kronberg Academy Cello Masterclasses and a 2020 Avery Fisher Career Grant.
Of Bulgarian-Chinese heritage, Zlatomir Fung began playing cello at age three and earned fellowships at Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute, Heifetz International Music Institute, MusicAlp, and the Aspen Music Festival and School. A proud recipient of the Kovner Fellowship, Fung currently studies at The Juilliard School under the tutelage of Richard Aaron and Timothy Eddy. Fung has been featured on NPR’s Performance Today and has appeared on From the Top six times. Fung plays a W. E. Hill and Sons cello from 1905. In addition to music, he enjoys cinema, reading, and blitz chess.
Gary Hoffman
Gary Hoffman is one of the outstanding cellists of our time,
combining instrumental mastery, great beauty of sound, and a
poetic sensibility in his distinctive and memorable
performances. Mr. Hoffman gained international renown upon
his victory as the first North American to win the
Rostropovich International Competition in Paris in 1986.
A frequent soloist with the world’s most noted orchestras, he
has appeared with the Chicago, London, Montreal, Toronto, San
Francisco, Baltimore and National symphony orchestras as
well as the English, Moscow and Los Angeles chamber
orchestras, the Orchestre National de France, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and the Netherlands and Rotterdam Philharmonic, the Cleveland Orchestra for the Blossom Festival and Philadelphia Orchestra, among many others. Mr. Hoffman collaborates regularly with such celebrated conductors as André Prévin, Charles Dutoit, Mstislav Rostropovich, Pinchas Zuckerman, Andrew Davis, Herbert Blomstedt, Kent Nagano, Jésus Lopez-Cobos and James Levine…
Gary Hoffman performs on major recital and chamber music series throughout the world, as well as in such prestigious festivals as Ravinia, Marlboro, Aspen, Bath, Evian, Helsinki, Verbier, Mostly Mozart, Schleswig Holstein, Stresa… He is a frequent guest of string quartets including Emerson, Tokyo, Borromeo, Brentano, and Ysaye.
Mr. Hoffman is an regular guest of the Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society.
Gary Hoffman premiered many concertos (Laurent Petitgirard, Joel Hoffman, Renaud Gagneux, Gil Shohat, Graciane Finzi, Dominique Lemaître, French Premiere of Elliott Carter Cello Concerto… )
Sharing his time and engagements mainly between Europe and America, he also regularly travels for concerts in Asia. He is the guest of main halls such as the Théâtre du Châtelet, Théâtre des Champs Elysées, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Kennedy Center, and numerous festivals: Ravinia, La Jolla, Schleswig Holstein, Verbier, Festival International de Colmar, Evian, Prades Festival, Honk Kong International Chamber Music Festival, Vancouver, Storioni, … etc. Gary Hoffman plays and gives master classes at the Ravinia Festival, Bloomington, Kobé, Manchester Cello Festival, Salzburger Mozarteum, Festival de Prades , Santa Fe… he is a close part of the Kronberg Academy family for years, intimately involved in the Academy Masters, the festivals, and the master class weeks .
Born in Vancouver, Canada, in 1956, Gary Hoffman devotes time to teaching, as well, having been the youngest faculty appointee in the history of the Indiana University School of Music, where he remained for eight years. Mr. Hoffman regularly holds master classes world-wide. He studied the cello with Janos Starker. In September 2011 he has been appointed as Professor at the Musical Chapel in Brussels, opening the cello class.
Residing in Paris, he is an active recording artist with the BMG (RCA), Sony, EMI and Le Chant du Monde and La Dolce Volta labels.
His Brahms Sonatas’ recording with Claire Désert – will be published in the autumn 2017 onto label La Dolce Volta. He participated to Dvorak recoding with the Jerusalem Quartet (Harmonia Mundi)– they are touring together in the main European cities.
Gary Hoffman performs on a 1662 Nicolo Amati, the “ex- Leonard Rose”.
Christine Lamprea
Christine Lamprea, Cellist and 2018 Sphinx Medal of Excellence Winner, is an artist known for her emotionally committed and intense performances. Upon her Carnegie Hall debut as soloist in 2013, she has since returned to Carnegie, as well as performed with orchestras such Costa Rica National Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Houston Symphony, National Symphony of Michoacan, New Jersey Symphony, San Antonio Symphony, Santa Fe Pro Musica, and toured with the Sphinx Virtuosi across the U.S. As a recitalist, Ms. Lamprea has appeared on prestigious series at Illinois’ Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, Florida’s Kravis Center for the Performing Arts, Pepperdine University, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Washington Performing Arts Society. In demand as a chamber musician, she performs regularly with the Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players, and has performed with such musicians as Shmuel Ashkenasi, Sarah Chang, Itzhak Perlman, Roger Tapping, and Carol Wincenc.
Ms. Lamprea strives to expand her musical boundaries by exploring many genres of music and non-traditional venues for performance and teaching. Her Songs of Colombia Suite includes arrangements of traditional South American tunes for cello and piano or guitar, and have been performed at the Colombian Embassy and Supreme Court of the United States for Justice Sonia Sotomayor. She has worked with members of Baroque ensemble Les Arts Florissants, and studied sonatas with fortepiano with Audrey Axinn. She has premiered several works by composers of today. In recent years, she commissioned cadenzas for the Haydn D Major Concerto by Jessie Montgomery, and premiered Jeffrey Mumford’s cello concerto “of fields unfolding…echoing depths of resonant light” with the San Antonio Symphony.
Ms. Lamprea is on the cello faculty at the Longy School of Music of Bard College, serves as substitute faculty at the Juilliard School, and served as Lecturer of Cello at the Texas Christian University School of Music for the 2018-19 academic year. Ms. Lamprea has given masterclasses for the Vivac-e Festival, Idyllwild Arts Academy, Wintergreen Summer Music Festival, among others. She has worked with Ecuadorian youth in the cities of Quito and Guayaquil, as part of a residency between The Juilliard School and “Sinfonia Por La Vida,” a social inclusion program modeled after Venezuela’s El Sistema program. Christine Lamprea is the recipient of a Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans, which supported her studies at the New England Conservatory, and a Sphinx MPower Artist Grant, which supported her study with acclaimed cellist Matt Haimovitz. She studied with Bonnie Hampton at The Juilliard School and holds a Master’s degree from the New England Conservatory, where she studied with Natasha Brofsky. Additional influences were Lynn Harrell, Frans Helmerson, and Philippe Muller. Previous teachers include Ken Freudigman and Ken Ishii.
Julia Lichten
Julia Lichten enjoys a varied career as soloist, chamber musician, and teacher in the New York City area and beyond. She was a member of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra from 1995 to 2014, and has toured with Orpheus, Musicians from Marlboro, and the American Chamber Players. She has also served as an Artistic Ambassador for the U.S. State Department.
Her festival engagements have included the Marlboro Music Festival, Tanglewood Music Center, Taos Chamber Music Festival, Library of Congress, Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts, Rockport Chamber Music Festival, Chesapeake Chamber Music, Bowdoin International Music Festival, and Rencontres Musicales d’Évian. She has recorded for Marlboro Recording Society, Arabesque, Koch International Classics, Music Masters, Sony Classical, and Deutsche Grammophon.
Lichten is an annual guest artist with the Brooklyn Chamber Music Society and has served as artist/faculty at Kneisel Hall Chamber Music School and Festival, Mannes College Beethoven Institute, National Orchestral Institute, Bowdoin International Music Festival, and Perlman Music Program. She is a member of the cello faculty at Manhattan School of Music, Purchase College, The Graduate Center at CUNY, and Meadowmount School of Music.
A native of New Haven, Connecticut, Lichten graduated from Harvard-Radcliffe and from the New England Conservatory. Her principal teachers and mentors included Mischa Nieland, Paul Tobias, Felix Galimir, David Soyer, and Leon Kirchner.
Johannes Moser
Hailed by Gramophone Magazine as “one of the finest among the astonishing gallery of young virtuoso cellists”, German-Canadian cellist Johannes Moser has performed with the world’s leading orchestras such as the Berliner Philharmoniker, New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, BBC Philharmonic at the Proms, London Symphony, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Koninklijk Concertgebouworkest, Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, Tokyo NHK Symphony, Philadelphia and Cleveland Orchestras with conductors of the highest level including Riccardo Muti, Lorin Maazel, Mariss Jansons, Valery Gergiev, Zubin Mehta, Vladimir Jurowski, Franz Welser-Möst, Christian Thielemann, Pierre Boulez, Paavo Jarvi, Semyon Bychkov, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, and Gustavo Dudamel.
His recordings include the concertos by Dvořák, Lalo, Elgar, Lutosławski, Dutilleux and Tchaikovsky, which have gained him the prestigious Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik and the Diapason d’Or and Gramophone commented “[Lutosławski and Dutilleux Cello Concertos]…Anyone coming afresh to these masterly works… should now investigate this new release ahead of all others…”. In August 2019 his latest release featured the works of Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn with Alasdair Beatson, Piano.
In the 2019/20 season, highlights include two world premieres of Cello Concertos by Andrew Norman with the Los Angeles Philharmonic with Gustavo Dudamel and Bernd Richard Deutsch’s with the Tonkünstler-Orchester Niederösterreich conducted by Yutaka Sado to include performances in Vienna (Musikverein), Grafenegg Festival, the Festspielhaus St. Polten and additional performances with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony. Johannes will also return to the London Philharmonic, BBC Philharmonic, BBC Scottish Symphony and Boston Symphony Orchestras as well as to the George Enescu Festival with the Oslo Philharmonic. He will also perform at the season opening concerts of both the Ulster Orchestra (Elgar’s Cello Concerto conducted by Daniele Rustioni) and the Orquesta Sinfonica de Galacia with (Saints-Saens Cello Concerto Conducted by Dima Slobodeniouk). European touring will include with the Symfonieorkest Vlaanderen, Württembergische Kammerorchester Heilbronn (Play-direct) and Metamorphosen Berlin.
A dedicated chamber musician, Johannes has performed with Emanuel Ax, Joshua Bell, Jonathan Biss, James Ehnes, Vadim Gluzman, Leonidas Kavakos, Midori, Menahem Pressler and Yevgeny Sudbin. Johannes is also a regular at festivals including the Verbier, Schleswig-Holstein, Gstaad and Kissinger festivals, the Mehta Chamber Music Festival, and the Colorado, Seattle and Brevard music festivals.
Renowned for his efforts to expand the reach of the classical genre, as well as his passionate focus on new music, Johannes has recently been heavily involved in commissioning works by Julia Wolfe, Ellen Reid, Thomas Agerfeld Olesen, Johannes Kalitzke, Jelena Firsowa and Andrew Norman. In 2011 he premiered Magnetar for electric cello by Enrico Chapela with the Los Angeles Philharmonic conducted by Gustavo Dudamel, and in the following season he continued this relationship with the orchestra performing Michel van der Aa’s cello concerto Up-close. Throughout his career, Johannes has been committed to reaching out to all audiences, from kindergarten to college and beyond. He combines most of his concert engagements with masterclasses, school visits and preconcert lectures.
Born into a musical family in 1979, Johannes began studying the cello at the age of eight and became a student of Professor David Geringas in 1997. He was the top prize winner at the 2002 Tchaikovsky Competition, in addition to being awarded the Special Prize for his interpretation of the Rococo Variations. In 2014 he was awarded with the prestigious Brahms prize.
A voracious reader of everything from Kafka to Collins, and an avid outdoorsman, Johannes Moser is a keen hiker and mountain biker in what little spare time he has.
Johannes Moser plays on an Andrea Guarneri Cello from 1694 from a private collection.
Inbal Segev
Inbal Segev is “a cellist with something to say” (Gramophone). Combining rich tone and technical mastery with rare dedication and intelligence, she has appeared with orchestras including the Berlin Philharmonic, Israel Philharmonic and Pittsburgh Symphony, collaborating with such prominent conductors as Marin Alsop, Lorin Maazel and Zubin Mehta.
A co-curator of chamber music at the Baltimore Symphony’s New Music Festival, she co-founded the Amerigo Trio with former New York Philharmonic concertmaster Glenn Dicterow and violist Karen Dreyfus. Committed to reinvigorating the cello repertoire, she has commissioned new works from Timo Andres, Avner Dorman, Gity Razaz, Dan Visconti and Anna Clyne. Recorded with Alsop and the London Philharmonic Orchestra for Avie Records, Segev’s 2020 premiere recording of Clyne’s new cello concerto, DANCE, was an instant success, topping the Amazon Classical Concertos chart and being chosen as one of NPR Music’s “Favorite Songs of 2020.”
The cellist’s discography also includes acclaimed albums of Bach’s Cello Suites (Vox) and Romantic cello works (Avie), while her popular YouTube masterclass series, Musings with Inbal Segev, has thousands of subscribers around the world and more than a million views to date.
Segev’s many honors include prizes at the Pablo Casals, Paulo and Washington International Competitions. A native of Israel, at 16 she was invited by Isaac Stern to continue her cello studies in the U.S., where she earned degrees from Yale University and the Juilliard School. Her cello was made by Francesco Ruggieri in 1673.
Peter Wiley
Peter Wiley, a 1974 graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, has played at leading festivals including the Marlboro Music Festival, for which he also tours and records. As a recitalist he has appeared at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall. A member of the Beaux Arts Trio from 1987 to 1998, Mr. Wiley also succeeded his teacher, David Soyer, as cellist of the Guarneri String Quartet from 2001 to 2009. He is a member of the piano quartet Opus One, with Curtis faculty members Ida Kavafian and Steven Tenenbom and pianist Anne-Marie McDermott.
Mr. Wiley entered Curtis at age thirteen. At twenty he was named principal cello of the Cincinnati Symphony, after one year with the Pittsburgh Symphony. He made his concerto debut at Carnegie Hall in 1986 with the New York String Orchestra conducted by Alexander Schneider.
A past recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant, Mr. Wiley joined the faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music in 1996. He also teaches at Bard College Conservatory of Music.
2020 Expert Series:
Mike Block, Improv
Mike Block is a pioneering cello player, singer, composer, and educator, hailed by Yo-Yo Ma as the “ideal musician of the 21st-Century.” Passionate about cross-cultural collaboration through music, Mike is committed to inspiring individuals and connecting communities. At home in a wide range of musical styles, through a multi-genre approach to composition, performance and education, he seeks to inspire audiences and empower musicians to find joy in the full world of music.
Mike is member of Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble (SRE),having joined in 2005 while a student at The Juilliard School. Touring extensively throughout the world with SRE, he has been featured as cello and vocal soloist, contributed arrangements and compositions, and earned a Grammy Award in 2017 for their album, Sing Me Home. Mike also served as Music Director for SRE’s acclaimed opening concert of New York City’s Central Park SummerStage 2011 season “Night at the Caravanserai: Tales of Wonder”.
Acclaimed by the NY Times for his “vital rich-hued solo playing,” Block’s solo performances offer a rich mixture of core classical repertoire with original compositions. He has collaborated in performance and recordings with a variety of diverse musicians, including Will.i.am, Edgar Meyer, Stevie Wonder, The New York Philharmonic, Bon Iver, Zakir Hussain, Rachel Barton Pine, Allison Krauss, Mark O’Connor, Rhiannon Giddens, Bobby McFerrin, Darol Anger, Mike Marshall, and Julian Lage. Mike is an active recording artist of original material, folk music and cross-cultural collaborations, and his albums have consistently debuted near the top of the Billboard charts for multiple styles, including Classical, Bluegrass, World Music, and Classical Crossover. He has an ongoing video project to record all of the Bach cello suites in acoustically glorious bathrooms of famous concert halls, via BachInTheBathroom.com, and takes his solo show on an annual Frank Lloyd Wright House Concert Tour. In 2017, Block became an ongoing contributor to Facebook’s Sound Collection, for which he has composed, arranged, recorded, and produced over 400 tracks, ranging from Western Classical to contemporary pop, as well as traditional music from Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East.
As an educator, Mike is passionate about creativity and collaboration. In 2010 he founded the Mike Block String Camp (MBSC) as a way to provide players of all backgrounds the opportunity to learn from a world-class faculty in a variety of styles, supporting the exploration and development of the artistic voice of each student. Mike is also the founding Director of Silkroad’s Global Musician Workshop (GMW), designed to foster a community of globally minded musicians. He teaches hundreds of cello students online through his Multi-Style Cello School at ArtistWorks.com, with an extensive library of instructional and performance videos, and authored the book Contemporary Cello Etudes, published by Berklee Press. In 2012, Mike was appointed Associate Professor at the Berklee College of Music, and in 2018 also joined the faculty of New England Conservatory through the Contemporary Improvisation program.
During his time living in New York City, Mike regularly subbed on Broadway as on-stage cellist for the Pulitzer Prize winning musical, Next to Normal, and he also worked as Music Consultant on the 2012 film, A Late Quartet. Mike was the subject of a 2011 feature article in the Wall Street Journal for his Artistic Directorship of the GALA BROOKLYN Music Festival, featuring cross-cultural collaborations among locally-based musicians. Mike’s television and radio credits include Late Night with Conan O’Brian, Regis and Kelly, NBC’s 30 Rock, NPR’s St. Paul Sunday Morning, WNYC’s Soundcheck, APM’s Performance Today, WNBC 4’s Chuck Scarborough Show, VH1, The Disney Channel, and the CBS Early Show.
As an innovator, Mike is among the first wave of cellists to adopt a strap in order to stand and move while playing. Employing his patented design, The Block Strap, Mike was the first standing cellist to perform at Carnegie Hall. The NY Times characterized the performance as, “Breathless … Half dance, half dare.”
Mike attended the Cleveland Institute of Music, where he studied cello with Richard Aaron, and received the Jim Hall Prize for Undergraduate Achievement. He earned a Master’s Degree from the Juilliard School, studying with Darrett Adkins and Joel Krosnick. Mike plays on a modern cello made in 2014 by Fabienne Gauchet, a Yamaha electric cello, D’Addario strings, a David Gage Realist pickup, and the patented cello strap of his own design, The Block Strap. Mike lives in Boston with his wife, fiddler Hanneke Cassel, and their young daughter.
Anne Francis Bayless, Fry Street Quartet
Cellist Anne Francis Bayless has been a member of the internationally acclaimed Fry Street Quartet since 2000. Hailed as “a triumph of ensemble playing” (New York Times), the FSQ has perfected a “blend of technical precision and scorching spontaneity” (Strad).
Prize winners at the Banff International String Quartet Competition and both the Fischoff and Yellow Springs national chamber music competitions, the FSQ has reached audiences from Carnegie Hall to Sarajevo and Jerusalem, exploring the medium of the string quartet and its life-affirming potential with “profound understanding, …depth of expression, and stunning technical astuteness” (Deseret Morning News).
Anne received her Bachelor of Music degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music, where she studied with Richard Aaron and Alan Harris, and she served as teaching assistant to Paul Katz while pursuing her Master of Music degree at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University. Previous teachers include Grace Field, Bruce Uchimura, and Bonnie Hampton.
Alongside her touring schedule with the FSQ, Anne teaches cello and chamber music on the faculty of the Caine College of the Arts at Utah State University. Anne is married to Utah Symphony principal violist Brant Bayless, and the couple lives with their young son in Logan and Salt Lake City. Anne performs on a Carl Becker Sr. cello dated 1926 and a bow by A. Vigneron, Paris.
Elinor Frey, Historical Performance Specialist
Elinor Frey is a leading Canadian-American cellist and researcher who specializes in early music and new music. Her acclaimed CDs on the Belgian label Passacaille – most of which are world premiere recordings – include La voce del violoncello (2013), Berlin Sonatas (2015) with Lorenzo Ghielmi on fortepiano, Fiorè (2017), which features soprano Suzie LeBlanc, and Giuseppe Clemente Dall’Abaco: Cello Sonatas (2020) which received a Diapason d’Or.
Her current release is Antonio Vandini: Complete Works, a project in collaboration with Marc Vanscheeuwijck. Her critical edition of Dall’Abaco Sonatas is published in collaboration with Walhall Editions.
Frey’s album of new works for Baroque cello, titled Guided By Voices, was released on the Analekta label in 2019. In recent seasons she has performed throughout N. America and Europe, as well as with her quartet, Pallade Musica.
Recipient of a US-Italy Fulbright Fellowship, Frey holds degrees from McGill, Mannes, and Juilliard. She teaches early cello at the University of Montréal, lectures at McGill University, and is a Visiting Fellow in Music at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford University. Frey was awarded Québec’s Opus Prize for “Performer of the Year” in 2021.
Gloria Lum, Los Angeles Philharmonic
Los Angeles Philharmonic cellist Gloria Lum has played in orchestras her entire life. Having
fallen in love at an early age with the idea of being surrounded by sound and fellow musicians,
Gloria has always enjoyed the collaborative aspect of orchestral playing. For the past three
decades, she has been a member of the LA Philharmonic where her chair is endowed by Linda
and Maynard Britten, the first section player to have been given that honor. Prior to that, she
was a member of the Denver Symphony and has been a participant in the Colorado Music
Festival, the Colorado Philharmonic and the Aspen Music Festival.
An active chamber musician, she has appeared on the Philharmonic’s Chamber Music Series
with Emanuel Ax, Andre Previn, Josh Bell, and Lars Vogt. A frequent participant in the
orchestra’s Green Umbrella series, she has worked with John Adams, Esa-Pekka Salonen,
Witold Lutoslawski, Gyorgy Ligeti, Elliott Carter and Steven Stucky where she was involved in
numerous US and world premieres.
In addition to her playing with the orchestra, Gloria has been intimately involved in all of the
committees that serve the orchestra, but particularly the Auditions and Renewals Committee.
For more than half her tenure in the orchestra, she has served as both a member and the chair
of the Audition Committee. This has given her a unique perspective on the audition process and
the specific way in which preparation for an audition is distinctly different from preparation for
other kinds of performances. Gloria is the owner and head coach of Audition Confidential, an
online company that helps young professionals successfully navigate the audition process.
http://www.auditionconfidential.com
Gloria is also on the faculty of Occidental College in Los Angeles, where she teaches both cello
and chamber music. She also teaches through the Philharmonic’s YOLA program and maintains
an active private studio.
Professional Development Series:
Suzanne Heglend
Suzanne Hegland teaches College Writing and directs The Writing Center at New England Conservatory. She is also faculty advisor for the student newspaper, The Penguin.
Hegland’s writing has appeared in the Boston Globe, The Huffington Post, The Rumpus, The World Scholar, and Creative Nonfiction. In addition to teaching, Suzanne is founder of CaptivatInk, a one-on-one coaching service helping writers at all levels from brainstorm to the final draft.
B.A., M.A. in History, University of Massachusetts/Amherst; M.Ed. in Higher Education Administration, Suffolk University; M.F.A. in Creative Writing, Lesley University
William Fedkenheuer
William Fedkenheuer is widely respected as a performer, teacher, and consultant. Uniquely drawing on two decades of experience onstage and off as a member of three internationally renowned string quartets (The Miró, Fry Street, Borromeo Quartets), he dedicates his life to serving others through performance, teaching, personal and professional development.
Drawing on his past twenty-five years of experience developing highly effective strategies, principles and tools for how to thrive as a classical musician, ensemble, and organization, his mission is to empower each individual to give permission to be their most impactful, creative, and alive self. William works with individuals, ensembles, and organizations in individual and group sessions, public workshops and public speaking to expose and sharpen weaknesses, strengths and opportunities that are specifically unique to their lives and values, altering perceptions and mindsets so they can move forward with the impact and life they are seeking with clarity and authenticity.
As a soloist and chamber musician, William performs on the world’s most prestigious stages and appearances in the media include NPR, PBS, NHK, and the Discovery Channel. Currently second violinist of the Miró Quartet, William serves as an Associate Professor of Instruction at the University of Texas at Austin’s Butler School of Music and oversees its Young Professional String Quartet Program. Growing up in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, William became the youngest member of The Calgary Fiddlers in 1983 and was named a Canadian national fiddle champion in 1989 before making his solo debut with the Calgary Philharmonic in 1994.
An active hiker, fly-fisherman, and burger connoisseur, William has two sons, Max and Olli who share his love of curiosity, discovery, innovation and chocolate.
Ashleigh Gordon
Described as a “charismatic and captivating performer,” Ashleigh Gordon has recorded with Switzerland’s Ensemble Proton and Germany’s Ensemble Modern; performed with Grammy-award winning BMOP and Grammy-nominated A Far Cry string ensemble; and appeared at the prestigious BBC Proms Festival with the Chineke! Orchestra. Comfortable on an international stage, Ashleigh has performed in the Royal Albert and Royal Festival Halls (London), Konzerthaus Berlin and Oper Frankfurt (Germany), Gare du Nord and Dampfzentrale Bern (Switzerland), Centre Pompidou (Paris), the Lee Hysan Concert Hall (Hong Kong), and throughout Sofia, Bulgaria as part of the multi-disciplinary 180 Degrees Festival.
Ashleigh is co-founder, Artistic/Executive Director and violist of Castle of our Skins, a Boston-based concert and educational series devoted to celebrating Black Artistry through music. In recognition of her work, she has presented at IDEAS UMass Boston Conference and 180 Degrees Festival in Bulgaria; has been featured in the International Musician and Improper Bostonian magazines as well as the Boston Globe; and was awarded the 2016 Charles Walton Diversity Advocate Award from the American Federation of Musicians. She is a 2015 St. Botolph Emerging Artist Award recipient, a 2019 Brother Thomas Fellow, a nominee for the 2020 “Americans for the Arts Johnson Fellowship for Artists Transforming Communities,” and named one of WBUR’s “ARTery 25”, twenty-five millennials of color impacting Boston’s arts and culture scene.
Aubrey Bergauer
Hailed as “the Steve Jobs of classical music” (Observer), Aubrey Bergauer is known for her results-driven, customer-centric, data-obsessed pursuit of changing the narrative for symphony orchestras. A “dynamic administrator” with an “unquenchable drive for canny innovation” (San Francisco Chronicle), her leadership as Executive Director of the California Symphony propelled the organization to double the size of its audience and nearly quadruple the donor base.
Bergauer’s ability to cast and communicate vision moves large teams forward and brings stakeholders together across the institution, earning her “a reputation for coming up with great ideas and then realizing them” (San Francisco Classical Voice). Her drive to see opportunity in place of unsolvable challenges or irreversible trends produces different results than the norm, secures new revenue streams, and galvanizes audiences and donors. Bergauer builds strategic plans and organizations, leverages technology and new media to elevate and extend the brand, and prioritizes diversity and inclusion to create a stronger product on stage and off.
A graduate of Rice University with degrees in Music Performance and Business, her work and leadership has been covered in national publications including Entrepreneur, Thrive Global, Wall Street Journal, and Southwest Airlines and Symphony magazines, and she is a frequent speaker at universities and conferences across North America, including Adobe’s Magento, TEDx, Opera America, the League of American Orchestras, and Orchestras Canada. In 2020, she launched the Center for Innovative Leadership at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music while continuing her consulting practice empowering large nonprofits to deliver game-changing results.
Mary Javian
Mary Javian’s goal as a performer, educator, curator and public speaker is to use music to create positive social change in communities. She has presented around the world in these areas for two decades.
Ms. Javian has toured and performed with the Philadelphia Orchestra and other world-class ensembles as a double bassist. She has served as principal bass of the IRIS Orchestra and has recorded with the Philadelphia and IRIS Orchestras, the Tanglewood Music Center, Network for New Music, Dolce Suono, and the Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music. She has performed recitals and given master classes in the U.S., Europe, and Asia. Ms. Javian has received fellowships from the Tanglewood Music Center, the National Repertory Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra, and the Verbier Festival in Switzerland, where she is now a member of the faculty.
As Chair of Career Studies at Curtis, Ms. Javian has created a dynamic social entrepreneurship curriculum that develops the entrepreneurial and advocacy skills that 21st-century musicians need. Her project-based classes help students create community partnerships that sustain both artistic and social value. Her students have gone on to start their own educational programs, innovative ensembles, and music festivals around the world.
For a decade Ms. Javian curated a critically acclaimed concert series for LiveConnections at World Cafe Live, featuring boundary-crossing collaborations and emphasizing newly commissioned music that blends styles and cultures. She has also curated performances for Intercultural Journeys, an organization that promotes peace and cultural dialogue through music; and works with Curtis students to create concerts for families and new audiences through innovative partnerships with arts organizations across Philadelphia.
Ms. Javian is frequently asked to speak about social entrepreneurship and community-based work and has contributed to several books on these subjects. She has presented at numerous universities and conservatories; has consulted with organizations such as the Philadelphia Orchestra, the New World Symphony, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, and the Savannah Music Festival; and has led workshops for programs across the U.S, Europe and Asia. Ms. Javian currently serves on the boards of two music education nonprofits, Project 440 and the VOCES8 Foundation USA.
A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, Ms. Javian studied double bass with Harold Robinson. She joined the Curtis faculty in 2011 and assumed her current position in 2016.
Todd Reynolds
Elena Urioste, Yoga
Elena Urioste, a BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist (2012-14) and also a first-place laureate of the Sphinx Competition, has given acclaimed performances with major orchestras internationally including the Philadelphia, Cleveland and Minnesota Orchestras; LA and New York Philharmonics; Boston Pops; the Chicago, National, Atlanta, Baltimore, Detroit, and Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestras; the London Philharmonic, Hallé, Philharmonia, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Malaysia Philharmonic, and Chineke! Orchestras; and the BBC Symphony, BBC Philharmonic, and BBC NOW, among others.
She has performed regularly as a featured soloist in Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium and given recitals in such distinguished venues as the Wigmore Hall, Weill Recital Hall, Kennedy Center, Konzerthaus Berlin, Sage Gateshead, Bayerischer Rundfunk Munich, and the Mondavi Center.
She has recorded albums for Decca, BIS Records, and Orchid Classics, and runs her own annual chamber music festival on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. Elena is a 200-hr RYT Kripalu yoga teacher with over a decade of experience practicing various styles of yoga including Bikram, Fierce Grace, alignment-based vinyasa, and more.
Lori Schiff, Alexander Technique
Ms. Schiff is a full time professor of The Alexander Technique at The Juilliard School and a guest teaching artist for various schools and organizations nationally and internationally. She has been a faculty member of The Juilliard School since 1991 and was on faculty at The Aspen Music Festival and School from 1993 – 2015.
Ms. Schiff is an Associate Director and Senior Teacher for Teacher Training at The Riverside Initiative for The Alexander Technique in New York City.
Ms. Schiff was Certified as a Teacher of the Alexander Technique at ACAT-New York in 1987. She continued with postgraduate training with Walter and Dilys Carrington at the Constructive Teaching Centre in London.
She is a graduate of the Northwestern University School of Music in Trumpet Performance and has her Masters in Music from Manhattan School of Music.
Institutions where she has been a guest teaching artist include: The New World Symphony, The U.S. Military Academy Band at West Point, The U.S. Army Field Band and U.S. Army Soldier’s Chorus, The San Diego Symphony, ToneBank International Music Festival, National Youth Orchestra of China, The International Lutoslawski Youth Orchestra, and The Internationale Meistersinger Akademie in Neumarkt, Germany.
She has presented Master Classes at institutions including The Metropolitan Opera, Opera America, West Point Military Academy, Fort Meade, The Academy (ACJW) at Carnegie Hall, Manhattan School of Music, Maryland Classic Youth Orchestras, The National Orchestral Institute, The Baltimore Symphony Youth Orchestra and The New York Youth Symphony, Theater Aspen, MorseLife Senior Residences, and Holland and Knight, LLP.
Ms. Schiff is a recognized senior teacher of the Alexander Technique by the American Society for the Alexander Technique and has presented master classes at the AmSAT conferences in San Francisco, Ann Arbor, Las Vegas , New York City, Boston, and Minneapolis. She was a guest lecturer on Teaching the Alexander Technique in schools of music for The International Congress for the Alexander Technique in Lugano, Switzerland.
Ms. Schiff served on the Board of Directors of the Aspen Music Festival and School as Chair of the Music Committee for nine years. She has also served on the Board of Directors of The American Society for the Alexander Technique.
Ms. Schiff has a private Alexander Technique practice in NYC. She is the founding director of Flight Feather Productions, LLC, an organization for creating and supporting uplifting educational experiences for corporate and artistic communities.
With composer Lance Horne, she is the Co-Director of Creativity Lab, a program for inspiring community and collaboration through collective creativity.
As a committed recreational runner, she has completed four marathons, several half marathons, and countless 10ks, 5 Milers, 4 Milers, and 5ks.
Roxan Jurkevich, Weight Training for String Players
Roxan Jurkevich is a dynamic, multi-faceted percussionist whose many musical influences allow her to perform in a myriad of musical styles. She’s been Principal Percussionist/ Assistant Principal Timpanist with the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra in Spain since the 1991-92 season, with whom she’s also appeared as soloist, performing the world premiere of Alejandro Civilotti’s Rhapsódia para Percusión y Orquesta in 1994, and solo timpani on Franz Waxman’s Sinfonietta for String Orchestra and Timpani (Koch records, 1998).
Ms. Jurkevich has performed with the Metropolitan Opera in New York, the Philharmonia Orchestra in London, the Royal Flemish Philharmonic in Antwerp, and in September 2019 toured Europe with the Israel Philharmonic, led by Zubin Mehta on his final tour as their Music Director. She frequently played under maestros Mehta and Lorin Maazel at the Orquestra de la Comunidad Valenciana (OCV) in Valencia, Spain, as well as with other prominent orchestra conductors such as Pierre Boulez, André Prévin, Esa-Pekka Saalonen, Yuri Temirkanov, Christopher Hogwood and Jesús López-Cóbos, to name just a few.
As an active chamber musician, Roxan has performed with I.C.E. (International Contemporary Ensemble),
Newband, Speculum Musicae, Drumfire Quartet and Percusions i Solistes de l’OBC, and collaborates with living
composers to help create new works for percussion. In October 2020 she performed the world premier of the very
first duo for marimba and electric guitar, Pandemic Dance No. 18, by Gene Pritsker. She is also a member of Fifth
Essence, a pop music “cover” band made up of a string quartet plus percussion playing acoustic arrangements of
well-known pop songs.
Having always been somewhat athletic, Roxan suffered a near-fatal traffic accident in 2014, and during her
recovery period, she realized the power of fitness and nutrition for reversing grave injuries, and for reviving oneself. Her project ‘The Fit Musician’ is the manifestation of her desire that all musicians prioritize fitness and nutrition as much as they do the practice of their instruments, so as to not limit peak performance potential! She has embarked on a mission to educate as many musicians as possible, young and old, all over the world, in this area.
David Hawthorne, Bowmaker
Virtual Summer Cello Festival 